Canning council wants the state government to justify its planned $5 million changes to three intersections along Leach Highway after a petition containing more than 900 signatures was presented to the state government.
Main Roads WA says that removing a right turn from Leach Highway into Shelley at Fifth Avenue and changing the intersection at Corinthian Road East by mid 2025 will improve road safety.
But the petition says the project would remove an entry point into Rossmoyne and create “rat runs” down nearby streets.
Canning deputy mayor Amanda Spencer-Teo and councillor Ben Kunze sought council support at its meeting on April 30 to force Main Roads to provide traffic modelling on how the upgrades would affect traffic.
The motion also requested mayor Patrick Hall write to the Minister for Transport Rita Saffioti and Main Roads WA about the “lack of community consultation”.
A council report said data published by Main Roads WA revealed 16 crashes over five years at the Fifth Avenue intersection.
“All too often, major changes to intersections and roads are proposed by those who don’t use them daily,” Cr Spencer-Teo said.
“When you compare that (data) to other intersections along Leach — with double, triple the amount of crashes — you really have to question if this is the best way to spend $5m of taxpayer money.”
Cr Ben Kunze said the positives of the project need to outweigh the negatives.
